Kyrillos Unveils “Parent Trigger” Education Reforms

(Trenton)— Declaring that parents must be given tools to force changes in failing schools, Senator Joe Kyrillos (R- Monmouth) today announced that he has submitted groundbreaking education reform legislation to the Senate for consideration. The Parent Empowerment and Choice Act, known informally as the “parent trigger”, allows parents in chronically underperforming school districts to compel a variety of reforms be undertaken via petition.

“Children in dramatically underperforming school districts, many of which are in the poorest neighborhoods in New Jersey, report to class every day as unwilling actors in a modern tragedy,” said Senator Kyrillos. “These children are not afforded the education they need to make a better life for themselves, and are placed at a substantial disadvantage to their peers by government and the education establishment. Parents are given little choice but to look on as their children are failed in the most formative years of their lives. It is a moral imperative and an economic imperative that we not allow this to continue in New Jersey.”

Under the proposal, parents of children in a low performing school may petition to force the following reform measures at a particular school: (1) reopening as a charter school, (2) changes in school administrators including but not limited to the principal, (3) establishment of a tuition voucher program. The board of education or State district superintendent must grant the change if a majority of parents in the school in question sign the petition.

“The Parent Empowerment and Choice Act allows parents to take matters into their own hands when the system will not change on its own,” continued Kyrillos. “It allows for swift intervention to give children the educational opportunity state law requires, but all too often is not provided. While the refrain from defenders of the status quo is always to declare that change is difficult and takes time, that excuse does nothing for the children advancing through a troubled system. We cannot make time stand still in districts with severe shortcomings. Either we provide options to parents to effect rapid and wide ranging reforms, or children will continue to progress through an educational system that is not meeting their needs.”

The legislation is modeled after a grassroots initiative that originated in the Los Angeles Unified School District and was adopted statewide by the California Legislature in January 2010. It now moves to the Senate for a first reading and referral to the Senate Education Committee. For more information on parent-based school reforms, visit www.parentrevolution.org.

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Kyrillos to propose “Parent Trigger” education reform measure

Senator Joe Kyrillos told the Wall Street Jounral’s David Feith that he will introduce legislation this month that will legally empower parents to force administrative changes in failing schools.

“Parent Trigger” became law in California in January of this year.  Under the California law, if 51% of parents in a failing school sign a petition they can force administrative changes in the school, convert the school to charter status or shut down the school entirely.

The idea was first proposed by the “liberal activists group,” Parent Revolution. Liberal or not, the idea enjoys bi-partisan support in California but is being proposed mostly by Republicans elsewhere in the country, according to the WSJ article.

Kyrillos is confident is bill will become law. He told Feith:

“If it can pass in California, it can pass anywhere,” says New Jersey State Sen. Joe Kyrillos, who plans to introduce his parent-trigger bill as soon as this month. Mr. Kyrillos is confident his bill will pass, especially since Gov. Chris Christie, a fellow Republican, committed in September to supporting the kind of parent-empowering reform that “was recently done in California.”

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